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Changing Point Of Views In Memento Mori, By Jonathan Nolan

Decent Essays

In “Memento Mori,” Jonathan Nolan communicates the pressing need to acknowledge the importance of memories and historicity.The author introduces Earl, a man with memory loss. Earl’s memory loss causes confusion since he loses his memory every 10 minutes. Nolan, through his writing, shifts the point of view to create confusion for the readers. The changing point of views creates confusion for the readers, trying to reflect Earl’s confusion that he experiences. The story is told by two different narrators. A first-person narrator writes to a "you," who is gradually revealed to be Earl. A third-person narrator reports on Earl's actions from outside the story-world; it’s narrative is more nonlinear. The shifts in narration confuses readers because the narration is not specific and you’re not able to figure out who is talking and about what. The narrator tells …show more content…

The narrator says, “writing to you... I don't know how many times you'll have to read this before you listen to me. I don't even know how long you've been locked up in this room already. Neither do you.” At this point, we don’t know who “you” is. In this quote, the narrator explains that he’s not very aware of his surroundings, making the world confusing to him. If the character in the story doesn’t understand his surroundings then readers won’t be able to either since the readers can know only as much as what’s given by the narrator. The "I" who writes notes is the Earl who is living in his present 10 minutes of passing time. The "you" he is addressing is the future Earl, the Earl who will start the next 10 minute cycle after the Earl who is currently writing has faded away. As the current Earl says, "By the time you read this note, I'll be gone." The present Earl writes to a future Earl of the next 10 minutes, then disappears. Nolan uses a traditional form of a character

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